Too hot to deal? Take shelter in the cool and dark of the matinee.

Summer movie season has arrived. There are an insane number of films on the list that follows, and plenty of room for optimism. To that end, we've tried to cut back on the snarky comments about pointless sequels and loathsome actors although it's nearly impossible to let those infernal pirates sail by without a slap or two. But, hey, they can take it, because they're really, really rich, and because everyone knows pirates can't read. Happy summer, America. (And remember: All dates are for New York only and are subject to change.) —Chuck Wilson

DAY WATCHCast: Konstantin Khabensky, Maria Poroshina. Director: Timur Bekmambetov. The second film in Russian director Bekmambetov's proposed trilogy promises more blood and dizzying camera moves as the director explains how a 14th-century Mongol conqueror and his "Chalk of Destiny" lead to a modern battle between good and evil. (Fox Searchlight)

GRACIECast: Carly Schroeder, Elisabeth Shue, Dermot Mulroney. Director: Davis Guggenheim. Inspired by events in her own family, co-producer Shue stars as the mother of a teenage girl (Schroeder) who decides to take her older brother's place on a boys' soccer team after he's killed in a car accident. (Picturehouse)

MR. BROOKSCast: Kevin Costner, Demi Moore, Dane Cook, William Hurt. Director: Bruce A. Evans. Costner plays a rich Portland businessman who moonlights as a serial killer, a sideline at which he excels until a smart cop (Moore) and a blackmailing photographer (Cook) start messing with his master plan. (MGM)

PIERREPOINTTHE LAST HANGMANCast: Timothy Spall, Juliet Stevenson, Eddie Marsan Director: Adrian Shergold. A drama based on the life of Albert Pierrepoint (Spall), an English grocery clerk whose secret life as a state executionerhe's credited with executing 450 people, including Nazi war criminalsis exposed, making him a social pariah. (IFC)

JUNE 6

12:08 EAST OF BUCHARESTCast: Mircea Andreeseu, Teodor Corban, Ion Sapdaru. Director: Corneliu Porumboiu. In this Romanian comedy, a small town TV host wants to debate whether anyone in town actually participated in the overthrow of Communist leader Ceausescu 16 years earlier. The problem is that the only available guests are a history teacher with a hangover and a lonely old man. Winner of the Camera d'Or at Cannes 2006. (Tartan)

BROKEN ENGLISHCast: Parker Posey, Melvil Poupard, Gena Rowlands, Drea de Matteo. Director: Zoe Cassavetes. In a rare dramatic role, Posey stars as a Manhattan hotel exec unlucky in love, until the night she meets and falls hard for a visiting Frenchman (Melvil Poupard, who was so good in 2005's Time to Leave). (Magnolia)

CAPTIVITYCast: Elisha Cuthbert, Daniel Gillies, Pruitt Taylor Vince. Director: Roland Joffé. A fashion model (Cuthbert) and her chauffer (Gillies) are kidnapped and tortured by one of her fans (Vince). Locked in a tiny room together, model and chauffer predictably fall in love and unite to defeat their captor. (Lionsgate)

GHOSTS OF CITE SOLEILDirector: Asger Leth. This documentary tracks the rivalry between two brothers who rule separate factions in a brutal Haitian gang. Music by executive producer and Haitian hero Wyclef Jean. (Think Film)

DEATH AT A FUNERALCast: Ewen Bremmer, Peter Dinklage, Matthew Macfadyen. Director: Frank Oz. A black comedy about a British funeral where the mourning family is slowly coming unhinged, thanks to accidental drug trips, unexpected trysts, and the unnerving appearance of the dead patriarch's secret gay lover. Great trailer. (MGM)

GYPSY CARAVANDirector: Jasmine Dellal. Doc follows five renowned Gypsy bands as they tour four countries in six weeks. (Shadow Distribution)

RATATOUILLEVoice Cast: Patton Oswalt, Brian Dennehy, Brad Garrett, Janeane Garofalo. Director: Brad Bird. Pixar Animation and the director of The Incredibles team up to tell the inspiring tale of Remy the Parisian Rat, who dreams of being a master chef. (Buena Vista)

INTRODUCING THE DWIGHTSCast: Brenda Blethyn, Khan Chittenden, Emma Booth, Richard Wilson. Director: Cherie Nowlan.
From Australia, a comedy about an overbearing mother and comedienne (Brenda Blethyn), her two devoted sons, and the new girlfriend who's coming between them all. (Warner Independent)

LICENSE TO WEDCast: Robin Williams, Mandy Moore, John Krasinski. Director: Ken Kwapis. Sadie (Mandy Moore) dreams of marrying her fiancé (John Krasinski) at her family's church. To score the one open date, the couple must survive a marriage-prep course devised by a most unorthodox pastor (Williams). (Warner Bros)

RESCUE DAWNCast: Christian Bale, Steve Zahn, Jeremy Davies. Director: Werner Herzog. The true story of Dieter Dengler (Bale), shot down over Laos in 1964 and thrown into a North Vietnamese prison. (MGM)

1408Cast: John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Mary McCormack. Director: Mikael H Stephen King penned the short story that inspired this scary movie about a professional haunted house debunker (Cusack) who checks into a room many have entered and few have exited. (Weinstein/MGM)

HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIXCast: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson Director: David Yates. Obscure British import, for which there's very little advance publicity. (Warner Bros)

ARCTIC TALEDirector: Adam Ravetch and Sarah Robertson. From National Geographic Films, a doc tracking an Arctic walrus named Seela and a polar bear dubbed Nanu from birth to parenthood. (Paramount Vantage)

CASHBACKCast: Sean Biggerstaff, Emilia Fox, Shaun Evans. Director: Sean Ellis.Ellis expands his Oscar-nominated short about a young insomniac art student (Biggerstaff) who goes to work at an all-night market. There he discovers that he can stop time. (Magnolia)

HAIRSPRAYCast: John Travolta, Queen Latifah, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken. Director: Adam Shankman. In full drag, John Travolta plays a '50s mom, continuing a tradition set by the late, great, and much missed drag queen Divine, to whom the John Waterspenned part will always truly belong. (New Line Cinema)

I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRYCast: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Jessica Biel. Director: Dennis Dugan. Two perpetually single New York firefighters pretend to be lovers in order to receive domestic partnership benefits. (Universal)

JULY 27

I KNOW WHO KILLED MECast: Lindsay Lohan, Julia Ormond, Neal McDonough, Brian Geraghty. Director: Chris Sivertson. After escaping a sadistic serial killer, Aubrey Fleming (Lindsay Lohan) awakens from a coma to say that she is not who authorities believe she is, and that the real Aubrey Fleming is still out there, in danger. (Sony)

MOLIÈ Cast: Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchini, Laura Morante. Director: Laurent Tirard. Duris, from 2005's The Beat That My Heart Skipped, stars as the great French playwright Moliére. It's 1644 and the starving 22-year-old encounters a succession of people who will later inspire greatest play, Tartuffe. (Sony Pictures Classics)

THIS IS ENGLANDCast: Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham, Jo Hartley. Director: Shane Meadows. An English boy (Turgoose) whose father was killed in the Falklands falls in with a skinhead gang, whose leader (Graham) returns from jail, preaching racism and hate. (IFC First Take)

BECOMING JANECast: Anne Hathaway, James McAvoy, Julie Walters, James Cromwell, Maggie Smith. Director: Julian Jarrold. This costume drama from the director of Kinky Boots imagines that at age 20, budding English novelist Jane Austen (Hathaway) had a romance with a penniless but handsome young lawyer (McAvoy). (Miramax)

RESURRECTING THE CHAMPCast: Josh Hartnett, Samuel L. Jackson. Director: Rod Lurie. After realizing that a homeless man (Jackson) is a former boxing champ, sports reporter Hartnett tries to revive the boxer's career and also boost his own. (Yari Film Group)

ROCKET SCIENCECast: Reece Thompson, Nicholas D'Agosto. Director: Jeffrey Blitz. The director of the
Spellbound helms this comedy about a stutterer (Thompson) who joins his school debate team at the insistence of the beautiful team queen (Kendrick). (Picturehouse)

STARDUSTCast: Claire Danes, Charlie Cox, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert DeNiro, Peter O'Toole. Director: Matthew Vaughn. An young Englishman follows a falling star and ends up in the fantasy land of Faerie. Based on a Neil Gaiman graphic novel . (Paramount Pictures)

PENELOPECast: Christina Ricci, Catherine O'Hara, Peter Dinklage, James McAvoy. Director: Mark Palansky. A modern fable about a young woman afflicted with a pig snout of a nose. (IFC)

WRISTCUTTERS: A LOVE STORYCast: Patrick Fugit, Shea Whigham. Director: Goran Dukic. Zia (Fugit), who killed himself after his girlfriend dumped him, wakes up in a boring little desert town that's a kind of hell for suicides. Look for a cameo by Tom Waits. (Lionsgate)

AUGUST 24

THE COMEBACKSCast: David Koechner, Bradley Cooper. Director: Tom Brady. In this spoof, the unluckiest coach in sports (Koechner) takes over a talent-less football team with the worst record in history. (Fox Atomic)